Hong Kong - A Hong Kong investor was recovering in hospital Thursday after leaping off a railway bridge when he suffered stock losses of 38,000 US dollars. The 36-year-old man made the 20-metre leap onto railway tracks in the middle of a week that has seen Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index sink more than 5,000 points from its peak of just under 32,000 points on October 30.
He is believed to have invested heavily in the Hang Seng over the past month after losing his job, only to see his savings disappear as stock prices crashed.
A police spokesman said the man leaped Wednesday after a 90-minute standoff with police negotiators and firefighters. He was taken conscious to hospital and was in a stable condition Thursday.
The Hang Seng surged by nearly 40 per cent between August and the end of October before falling back sharply because of the US mortgage crisis and curbs on cross-border investment from mainland China.
